This invention relates to a new air treatment apparatus and methods for treatment of air.
Air treatment, i.e., the process of treating air to remove undesirable materials, is of great interest as advances in research continue to suggest that breathing purer air has tangible health benefits.
One known type of air treatment, referred to as air ionization or electron generation, involves using a source of electricity to produce a charge and generate negative ions. Contaminants suspended in air, such as dust, smoke and pollen, are usually made up of small positively-charged particles. The earth, buildings and other large objects are also positively charged, and thus tend to repel these particles, which keeps them in suspension. Negative ions are beneficial because they combine with the positive particles and neutralize them, and the resulting combinations fall to the earth or floor under the action of gravity because they are heavier than air. As a result, the xe2x80x9cionizedxe2x80x9d air has fewer suspended particles.
Most conventional air ionizers use corona discharge to produce a charge on a surface to generate negative ions. Corona discharge devices involve high voltages and may have a high capacitance, so the user""s inadvertent contact with a charged collector surface may lead to an undesirable shock.
Another known type of air treatment called photo-ionization involves producing ozone by subjecting the oxygen in air to ultraviolet light at a known wavelength (about 185 nm). Ozone is an effective oxidizer of organic substances, including bacteria, algae, mildew and mold, and helps to eliminate odor.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus that would allow for treatment of air by negative ionization and photo-ionization in a single unit. It would also be desirable to provide for treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are not generally susceptible to ozone oxidation.